Former Vermont Credit Union CEO Pleads Not Guilty to Embezzlement

Debra Kinney, the former CEO of the shuttered Border Lodge Credit Union of Derby Line, Vt., pleaded not guilty to an embezzlement charge last week before a U.S. District Court judge in Burlington, according to court documents.

The amount of money allegedly stolen by Kinney is not yet known. Tristram Coffin, a Vermont U.S. Attorney, said the “amount of the loss is still being compiled, but he believes when completed it will be at least several hundred thousand,” according to a report in the Burlington Free Press.

Kinney was indicted June 6 by a federal grand jury. The embezzlement allegedly occurred from November 2010 to December 2012.

On November 30, the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation closed the $3.1 million, Border Lodge and appointed the NCUA as the liquidating agent.

On that same day, federal investigators executed a search warrant and confiscated boxes of documents, including financial records, receipts, bank statements, invoices and other documents. They also removed two metal filing cabinets, a desktop and laptop computer and a thumb drive, according to court documents.

The decision to liquidate the credit union was to conserve the assets and protect the interests of the 1,097 members, the Vermont DFI said.